Wednesday, September 24, 2014

After taking some time off to get used to life with two girls under two, we had a fantastic week learning about music! We chose the Baby Loves Jazz book series by Andy Blackman Hurwitz to structure our week. Each book came with a CD to go along with the book. Little Cutie absolutely loves dancing to music even if it is just from a commercial on TV, so I knew she would enjoy this theme.

BooksMusic Is by Lloyd MossMusic by Neil ArdleyBaby Loves to Rock by Wednesday Kirwan

Activities

Philly Joe Giraffe's Jungle Jazz (Drums)

Philly Joe Giraffe plays the drums. The CD had mini drum lessons that we practiced with...mostly it was just different beats. We don't have a drum set (thankfully!), so we made our own drum using a plastic container and some pencils for drumsticks. A short and fat container would have worked better, as ours kept falling over, but Little Cutie was really getting into it!

Duck Ellington Swings Through the Zoo (Piano)

Duck Ellington plays the piano. In the book, he plays the piano for different animals in the zoo, so we were able to talk about animals too. We have a Little Tikes Tap-a-Tune piano that Little Cutie played along with the CD.

Miles the Crocodile Plays the Colors of Jazz (Trumpet)

Miles the Crocodile plays the trumpet (another instrument we do not own). In the book, he plays different songs based on different colors. The lighter colors seemed to be more upbeat songs and the darker colors were more mellow. This also gave us an opportunity to review color.

Ella Elephant Scats Like That (Vocals)

Ella Elephant scats. We talked about how our voices can be used as musical instruments through singing, or in the case, scatting.

There are three other characters in the series that we did not read:
- Charlie Bird Counts to the Beat (Saxophone)
- Louis Lion Sings Goodnight (Vocals)
- Mingus Mouse Plays Christmastime Jazz (Bass)

Little Cutie has done many puzzles before, however, with this puzzle, she just took the pieces out and played with them without the board. We worked on matching the colors and patterns of each top and bottom without the board since she didn't seem to want to play with it.

Laugh & Learn My Pretty Learning Purse

Little Cutie loves to take everything out of the purse and put everything back in. She also loves to wear the bracelet and pretend to talk on the cell phone. We talked about how all the things in the purse were accessories.

Matching Socks

I didn't think she would be able to match the pairs of socks, but it was worth a shot. She enjoys putting socks on her hands and tries to hold things with them on her hands. She has tried to put socks on her own feet, but hasn't mastered that skill yet.

Hat Box

I put together a box with a bunch of Little Cutie's hats. She normally hates having anything in her hair/on her head, but to my surprise, she actually loved putting on all the hats. We talked about how we wear warm hats in the winter to keep us warm and lighter hats in the summer for shade from the sun. She laughed when I tried to put her little hats on my head.

Friday, September 5, 2014

In anticipation of the arrival of our second daughter, we took a week to focus on Little Cutie becoming a big sister and our family. I didn't take many action shots as it was getting difficult to get around, but we did have a good time learning about our family.

BooksArthur's Baby by Marc BrownA Baby Sister for Frances by Russell HobanThe Berenstain Bears' New Baby by Stan BerenstainBig Sisters Are the Best by Fran Manushkin Franklin's Baby Sister by Paulette BourgeoisI'm a Big Sister by Joanna ColeThe New Baby by Mercer Mayer

Activities

Little Mommy Baby So New

We worked on showing Little Cutie how to be gentle with the baby doll and how babies sometimes use pacifiers (Little Cutie is a thumb sucker, so we don't have any pacifiers out). We also rocked the baby in our arms and tried to encourage her to carry the baby that way instead of holding it by it's head. :)

Little People Happy Sounds Home

Little Cutie played with this house for a while. She loved to put all the people and furniture through the door. She also loved making the toilet flush and the phone ring.

Family Photo Album

I put together a small 3x5 photo album of pictures of some of our immediate family members. Little Cutie loved flipping through the pages and we talked about who each person is and how they are related to her. We do not have any family that live close to us, so it was a good way for her to see family members that she doesn't get to see in person very often.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

BooksWhose Toes Are Those? by Jabari AsimWhose Knees Are These? by Jabari AsimWhere Is Baby's Belly Button? by Karen KatzClap Your Hands! (Sesame Street)Baby Faces by Margaret MillerHorns to Toes and In Between by Sandra BoyntonHere Are My Hands by Bill Martin

Activities

Mrs. Potato Head

Meet the new Mrs. Potato Head! She's slimmer and has sprouted feet! Little Cutie loved this toy all week and it was the first one she went for when she saw all the toys on the shelves. For some reason she really loved Mrs. Potato Head's ears and kept carrying them all over the house. She also took out the lips and would stick them in her mouth so it looked like she had lips. We took all the pieces out and let Little Cutie put them in how she wanted. Great for fine motor skills!

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes Song

We read Knees and Toes (Scholastic Rookie Toddler) and then sang the song version while pointing to the body parts on myself and then on Little Cutie. She was giggling the whole time and loved this song!

Hairbrush, Mirror, and Washcloth

We set out a hairbrush, hand mirror, and washcloth for Little Cutie. She loved playing with her hairbrush the most. We had some visitors over and she kept brushing everyone's hair. She also used the washcloth to pretend wash her face and looked at herself in the mirror.

Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Love to Play Sis

Little Cutie loves this toy. She loves to hug it and carry it around the house. We tried to focus on pointing out the puppy's body parts, which are labeled, and pushing the buttons on those parts to make the puppy talk.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Okay, so the title is a little misleading...our second daughter actually arrived a month ago, but as anyone who has had a baby knows, the first few days and weeks home are a blur of sleepless nights and nonstop feedings. Add a toddler into the mix, and you get a three ring circus! We are finally getting into a normal routine which has allowed me to get some time on the computer. Over the next week, I'll be sharing what we have been up to with Little Cutie!